Apr 30, 2002, 12.47am IST
M P K Kutty.
The danger of getting drawn into competition is that one will stoop low somewhere along the line to get the better of a rival, be it in business or when seeking a promotion. When pitted against petty people, you begin to think that you have to act at their level. You eventually adopt the world’s ways and get cast in its mould. Your determination to live up to your principles does not ensure that you will do so. People take to shortcuts believing that the path of goodness is strewn with pitfalls. Their argument is that we live in a cruel world where doing good simply does not pay. They even give the example of Christ, saying that he went about healing people and teaching them how to attain eternal life. Where did he end up? On the cross. This might be so, but it must not turn us away from doing good under all circumstances. As St Paul wrote to his friends in Galatia: “Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”. (Galatians 6:9 — Bible). Motivational speaker Shiv Khera often stresses the fact that it is enough for good people to be indifferent for the wicked to succeed. A recent news item reported the discovery of the author of a popular maxim that pertains to ‘being decent in a mean world’. According to the report, Kent M Keith, a Rhodes scholar, had written what have come to be known as ‘paradoxical maxims’ as a student at Harvard University 34 years ago. You might have come across these paradoxical commandments in many a home or office. They are: “People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centred. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; do good anyway. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow; do good anyway. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. “People favour underdogs; but follow only top dogs. Fight for some underdogs anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight; build anyway. People may need help but may attack you if you help them. Help people anyway. Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have got”. It is this way of thinking that gets eroded in the urban situation. For instance, you don’t like your neighbour. He gets on your nerves. Or he does not reciprocate. The paradoxical maxims would still want us to go on extending a hand of friendship to him. So too the Biblical message of Jesus. If you love only those who love you, lend only to those who lend to you, you are no better than sinners who do likewise, observed Jesus. He prescribed an active feeling of benevolence towards the other person, no matter how the other person reacts. And then he went on to advise to love those who hate you, to be kind to the thankless and the wicked; to pray for those who despised you, and so on. Technology and science have created neighbours; but they have not ensured the brotherhood of men. This role should be taken on by religion. Religion, wrote Edmund Burke, is the basis of civil society and the source of good and comfort. But the spectacle enacted during Gujarat’s communal violence does not reflect this at all. There were several acts of heroism in which people tried to come to the aid of their neighbours of another faith under attack. But there were also cases of indifference and active collusion in spreading violence. In this scenario, to rebuild trust and faith among communities, it is necessary to foster the love-thy-neighbour philosophy. Never mind the colour, creed or language of your neighbour. You need him and he needs you. In times of crisis, neighbours prove to be more helpful than relatives, who might not be at hand. Every religion teaches us to love our neighbour, and promotion of good neighbourliness is one way of enriching life and ensuring security. The ultimate message of the paradoxical commandments is the wisdom of being a good neighbour to a fellow being, regardless of returns.
No comments:
Post a Comment